FTW99LA129 · Piper J3C-65
Piper J3C-65 · Accident: loss of control in flight on approach
From Sam Riggs Airpark (K11) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW99LA129
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Completed
- API-reported fatalities
- 0 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 0
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- General aviation
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Piper J3C-65
- Aircraft type
- Piper J3
- Category
- Airplane
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- N3732C
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Sam Riggs Airpark (K11)To not recorded
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Part 91: General Aviation
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- Approach · VFR pattern turn to base
- First occurrenceThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- Loss of control in flight
- Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
- Stall
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Airspeed(vs), not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot rated passenger (PRP) was flying the airplane from the rear seat, and was on final approach to land to the north at a grass strip. The PRP turned the airplane to the northeast when he observed an ultralight departing the grass strip to the south. At that point the commercial pilot in the front seat took control of the airplane and pitched the airplane's 'nose up to climb a little and reduce speed.' He was turning the airplane left from downwind to base when the airplane's 'nose pitched down sharply and impacted the ground.' The pilot reported that as the airplane turned, the 'engine died,' and he continued turning toward an open area. Examination of the wreckage revealed that one propeller blade 'exhibited evidence of power.' There were also deep gouges in the ground that 'appear to be propeller slashes.' Continuity was established to all flight controls. The PRP stated that 'he did not observe any problems with the aircraft or engine performance.'
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain minimum airspeed for flight while maneuvering, which resulted in an inadvertent stall.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW99LA129
- Event ID
- 20001212X18767
- Case number
- FTW99LA129
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (4)
- Unreviewed is an editorial label, not an investigation status. API-sourced is not report-checked or human-reviewed. Explicit event totals are used without summing aircraft injury tables; onboard allocation is withheld. Unknown values remain unknown. The operation category is mapped from the NTSB-reported FAR part and has not been reviewed.
- Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1999-05-02.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 4f8df8c91a20c8cb795bb632e2c0f7ee5ff569cf3166a5118c77fe69e816914f; retrieved 2026-09-21T11:07:03.788Z.